"Twilight Owls" Music Release

Twilight Owls combines trance-inducing drums, flutes and nature sounds in a rousing celebration of shamanic music. Shamanic music is a way to evoke and internalize animal archetypes. An animal archetype represents the spirit and attributes of the entire species of that animal. Shamanism is the endeavor to cultivate ongoing relationships with power animals to gain insight, healing methods, and other vital information that can benefit the community. Owl medicine includes prophecy, wisdom, stealth, silence, intuition, clairvoyance, clairaudience, shapeshifting, and keen vision that can pierce all illusion. Call upon Owl to unmask and see what is truly beneath the surface -- what is hidden or in the shadows. Owl is a messenger of omens who will call out to let all share in its vision.

A shamanic performer uses various instruments to communicate with the spirits. The first instrument you hear on "Twilight Owls" is the Native American Flute, an ancient wind instrument used to announce to the spirits that ceremony is beginning. Its sound represents the voice of the birds, the voice of the wind and the voice of the soul -- those things that are free to move and fly. The next instrument you hear is the drum. Its steady beat is akin to the primal pulse, the heart, throbbing within all that exists. The shaman uses the drum to create a bridge to the spirit world and summon the healing power of spirit. Drum and flute merge with Tawny Owl calls and the sounds of nature weaving the musical fabric of the song. Available on iTunes, Amazon and CD Baby.

A Bridge to the Spirit World

In oral/aural cultures, sound is regarded as one of the most effective ways of establishing connections with the spirit realm since it travels through space, permeates visual and physical barriers, and conveys information from the unseen world that underlies our physical reality. Tuvan shamans of Siberia believe that the spirits of nature create their own sound world, and it is possible for humans to communicate with them through the sound of the drum. A ritual performance often begins with heating the drumhead over a fire to bring it up to the desired pitch. Shamans may strike certain parts of the drum to summon particular benevolent helping spirits who give them knowledge and assistance. It is the subtle variations in timbre and ever-changing overtones of the drum that allow the shaman to communicate with the spiritual realm. The shaman uses the drum to create a bridge to the spirit world while simultaneously opening the awareness of all the participants to that bridge.

All elements of drum music such as timbre, rhythm, volume and tempo play an important role in shamanic ritual. By using different parts of the drumstick to play on different parts of the drum, different timbres can be produced for transmitting different meanings. Different rhythms transmit different meanings and enable the shaman to contact different beings in different realms of the cosmos. Volume and tempo arouse feelings in the listener and communicate symbolic meanings directly as aural sense experience.

The Cosmic Center of the Drum Circle

Indigenous cultures have been practicing community percussion for thousands of years. Although most of us did not grow up in an indigenous rhythmic musical tradition, we can still tap into the healing power of the drum circle. People have gathered in circles since the beginning of humankind for a very good reason. The circle is a container for building community and celebrating life. All are equal in the circle; no one is above or below. In a circle, each person's face can be seen; each person's voice can be heard and valued. Like the hoop of the drum, the circle represents the wheel of life. The plants, the animals, the minerals, and the elemental forces of nature all exist within the circle. All creatures walk the circumference of the wheel of life, experiencing birth, life, and death. After completing a cycle of learning on the sacred wheel, each one returns to the source, the Great Mystery at the center of the circle.

Every drum circle has a center, which represents the cosmic axis of the sacred space. In circle culture, it is customary to set up a centerpiece or altar that is appropriate for the purpose of the circle. A simple altar can be created with a cloth, a candle and other symbols that mean something to you. For example, if it is a grieving circle, a photo of the person who has passed away can be placed on the altar. If it's a circle of celebration, a symbol of the reason for the celebration can be included. It is customary for participants to bring offerings, sacred objects and fresh cut herbs to place on and around the altar. The circle participants will decorate the center with these objects as a way of making it their community space.

Although an altar is not essential, it provides us with a focus to pray, meditate and listen. It is traditional in circles to speak into the center. The idea is that everyone's voice is added to the center, and it is from the center that the wisdom of the circle will begin to emerge. Once someone has spoken into the center, their contribution becomes part of the circle. It becomes part of a collective, evolving story, a pathway to unity and understanding. When a circle meets regularly over an extended period of time, extraordinary things happen. As members learn to trust the process, the circle itself becomes the teacher. Participants both contribute to and benefit from the group's collective wisdom and experience. Individual visions coalesce into one common vision and mission. To learn more, look inside Shamanic Drumming Circles Guide.

The Book of Ceremony

Ceremony is essential for a healthy and balanced personal and communal life. Many persistent personal and social problems can be linked to the lack of ceremony. Ceremonies reduce tension, anxiety and stress, produce deeper self-awareness, and connect us to our community. They connect us with our deepest core values and our highest vision of who we are and why we are here. That's why shamanic teacher Sandra Ingerman wrote The Book of Ceremony -- to help us recover the sense of deeper meaning and sacred connection that makes ceremony a powerful tool for transformation and healing. "Ceremonies have always been used to create transformation," writes Ingerman. "Performing ceremonies creates a bridge between the material world we live in and the world of the unseen, the divine, the power of the universe." This practical guidebook is recommended to anyone seeking to engage the powers of the unseen world. Look inside The Book of Ceremony: Shamanic Wisdom for Invoking the Sacred in Everyday Life.

Shamanic Synchronicity

Carl Jung, the eminent psychologist, defined synchronicity as "meaningful coincidence," one that involves an internal psychological event that corresponds to an external observable event. Jung's premise is based upon the synchronicity of the universe. This is the proposition that the human experience is a microcosm and reflection of universal law and order. Humanity is the universe, occurring in every moment. Each human being is a hologram of the Cosmos, a weaving together of universal information from a particular point of view. As American author and human potentialist George Leonard put it: "Each human being consists of pure information expressed as rhythmic waves that start as infinitesimal vibrations of subatomic particles and build outward as ever-widening resonant hierarchies of atoms, molecules, cells, organs, organisms, families, bands, tribes, nations, civilizations, and beyond." At every phase of unfoldment, every entity is interwoven through the resonant web of information that is the universe.

Jung held that synchronicities mirror deep psychological processes, convey messages the way dreams do, and impart meaning and guidance to the degree they correspond to emotional states and inner experiences. A synchronicity is a coincidence that has an analog in the psyche, and depending on how you comprehend it, it can inform you through intuition and emotion. As anthropologist Michael Harner put it in his book The Way of the Shaman, synchronicities are considered "a kind of homing beacon analogous to a radio directional signal indicating that the right procedures and methods are being employed." So be on the lookout for synchronicities, for they confirm that your shamanic work is producing effects beyond the bounds of probability or coincidence.